obama in all sorts of ways. the trend here, closer to the current time. first ladies have a big influence on their husbands. >> host: what was mamie eisenhower's roll? >> guest: she said i went in eight years in the oval office four times. all four times i was invited. one way their marriage worked was they did not discuss nuclear weapons policy and there was a division of labor and that had quite a good marriage but did not rest on being political partners. >> host: did beth truman hate being first lady? >> guest: i think she protested too much a little bit. at the very beginning she went right back to independence and did not come back for a long time and was upsetting to her husband. she did not give press conferences. she was very private. one source of this was when harry truman was about to be named vice president in 1944 in chicago she was at first against it and the reason was her father had died -- committed suicide which no one knew and she was worried that she ran for vice president there would be the